One of those young people who feel sad is 18-year-old Juul. She gives her life a five. Just this year she had started her studies and before that she moved from the Achterhoek to Amsterdam. Her roommate has now left and she lives alone. Her family and friends live in the Achterhoek.
She has no work and no studies, so she stopped. The study turned out to be less enjoyable and she found it difficult to follow online lessons. She feels alone. “Life is boring and hopeless,” says Juul. She tries to plan every day with things like walking and running errands. “But in the afternoon you did all that, and you don’t have much left to do. Then you start thinking. Especially at those moments I feel alone.”
Jurriaan (17) sometimes feels lonely too. That’s because he can’t go to school now, he says, and because he only speaks to his friends online now. He does not give his life insufficient, but he sometimes feels sad about it:
“That I can no longer see them and cannot do anything anymore. Then I feel really locked up, also mentally.” He is happy that he still has a side job as a food delivery driver. “Then I’m on my bike and I think: yes, I can go outside for a while.” That’s great, says Jurriaan, because he has to stare at his computer screen for the rest of the day. “Those online lessons are making me tired. I’m a bit on the max, I really wish we could go back to school.”
Don’t seem weak
Fatima of 15 agrees. “Small moments like laughing with your friends in the auditorium … If you don’t have them anymore, you think: those were really nice things.” She misses her life before corona and now gives her life a five, just like Juul. “It feels like you are alone in a box and it just won’t open”. Fatima thinks that many young people do not want to talk about that gloomy feeling, because they want to show that they can do it all. “We don’t want to look weak.”
From the questionnaire of NOS Stories, it can also be concluded that young people mainly miss their friends, followed by parties. They still get energy from watching a film or series, their part-time job or taking a walk. According to Juul, the latter is very important to do. “You really have to get out of the house, because in your room you really start to feel bad at some point.”
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